தரணிநிலை தானறிவான் தன்னைக் காணான்
தாவியவான் மேற்செல்வான் தன்வான் காணான்
மரணவகைப் பலவிளைப்பான் மதியே னென்பான்
மண்ணிலுயிர் பிறக்குமந்தச் சூக்கங் காணான்
கரணையுடன் சுழல்பொறிகள் பலவும் கண்டான்
கரணமுடன் பொறிபுலன்செய் கருத்தைக் காணான்
இரணமுறும் வைத்தியங்கள் பலவும் செய்வான்
இச்சையெனும் நோய்தீரா திடரே கொள்வான்
tharaNinilai thaan-aRivaan thannaik kaaNaan
thaaviya-vaan mERchelvaan thanvaan kaaNaan
maraNavagaip palavilaippaan mathiyE nenpaan
maNNiluyir piRakkumanthach sookkang kaaNaan
karaNaiyudan suzhalpoRigaL palavum kaNdaan
karaNamudan poRipulansey karuththaik kaaNaan
iraNamurum vaiththiyangaL palavum seyvaan
ichchaiyenum nOytheeraa thidarE koLvaan
He who claims to know the state/ground (tharaṇi-nilai) does not see himself.
He who has leapt and gone upward does not see his own “sky.”
He brings forth many kinds of deaths and says, “I am wise.”
He does not see the subtlety by which, in the earth, life is born.
He has seen many revolving sense-powers (poṟi) together with the instruments/organs (karaṇam).
He does not see the intention/thought (karuttu) by which the instruments and senses act upon their objects.
He performs many medical treatments that make wounds (iraṇam).
He takes on distress, for the disease called desire is not cured.
One may master “earthly knowledge” and even speak of higher ascent, yet remain blind to one’s own inner reality.
Such a person can skillfully handle the machinery of body and world—organs, senses, techniques, therapies—and still miss the subtle source: how life is formed, how mind drives perception and action.
Puffed up as “the intelligent one,” he inadvertently manufactures death (through ignorance, wrong practice, or harmful intervention).
Though he practices medicine, the deepest illness—desire (icchai)—remains untreated, and it becomes his continuing misery.
The verse contrasts external competence with inner seeing (self-knowledge). “Tharaṇi-nilai” can be read as worldly standing or the earth-principle itself; either way, the Siddhar criticizes knowledge that stays at the level of objects.
1) Self not seen: Knowing “the ground” (society, material nature, bodily constitution) is not the same as seeing the knower. The target is egoic learning that never turns inward.
2) Upward movement without inner sky: “Leaping upward” suggests yogic ascent (higher states, chakras, supernatural attainments) or worldly rise; yet “his own sky” (tan-vāṉ) implies the inner expanse (cittākāśa/chidākāśa). Progress without inner recognition is still blindness.
3) Producing deaths: “Many kinds of death” can mean literal harm caused by misguided medicine, or the repeated manufacture of death through karma and ignorance—each action grounded in desire and pride recreates mortality.
4) The subtle birth of life from earth: This points to the Siddha vision that life emerges through subtle transformations of the elements (pañca-bhūta), of food into tissues, or of mineral/earthy substances into potent medicine (alchemy). It can also hint at the yogic emergence of prāṇa/consciousness from the “earth-base” (mūlādhāra). The “subtlety” is the hidden causal chain that a merely technical mind misses.
5) Organs and senses vs. the driving intention: “Karaṇam” (instruments) and “poṟi/pulan” (senses and their fields) describe the perceptual apparatus. The Siddhar says: you may map the mechanisms, yet fail to perceive “karuttu”—the directing mind/intent/volition that makes the apparatus function. This is a critique of reductionism: anatomy without insight into mind and consciousness.
6) Wounding medicine; incurable desire: “Iraṇam-uṟum vaithiyangal” evokes invasive or harsh therapies that leave wounds—perhaps surgery, cautery, aggressive purgation, or even alchemical/iatrochemical interventions. But the core disease is “icchai” (desire/craving). In Siddhar ethics and yoga, desire is a root affliction that perpetuates suffering and rebirth; without curing it (through discipline, dispassion, inner realization), the practitioner remains “distressed” despite all medical skill.
Overall, the verse is a warning: mastery over external arts (medicine, sensory knowledge, even yogic ascent) becomes dangerous when untethered from self-knowledge and the purification of desire.